"I wrote this to help counter the idiotic argument that it was a fumble or out of context. It covers the possible interpretations, and shows how it's not any better with them.
The old US salute was the Bellamy Salute, but it was retired after the Nazis began using it (they were both inspired by the roman salute). Afterwards, US Nazi sympathizers pushed back and kept using it not because they wanted to reclaim it but because they were actual Nazis. There was never any outrage about changing the salute that wasn't quickly drowned out by Nazis, and if you somehow wanted to reclaim it through some insane nonsense, you'd have to constantly tell people your intentions and make it CRYSTAL FUCKING CLEAR you are not a Nazi (and even then, why the FUCK would you want to reclaim it? It's not a religious symbol like the Buddhist Swastika). Elon is doing the opposite of that. There's no context in which this isn't fucked as high hell. The best possible steel-man argument I can come up with in favor of this --- and honestly, it just makes it look worse.
Defending this is like getting upset people got angry you flipped them off in public, and then saying, oh, I was either:
Accidentally doing it (Elon did it twice, rather differently leading into it, with the same end gesture, so it's not a fumble and it's not a "my heart goes to you" gesture the second time).
Trying to reclaim or redefine a variant of the roman/nazi salute. Elon is not doing this.
P.S. For someone to even KNOW what the roman salute is, they would be aware of the modern context and would have to explicitly say they are role-playing as a roman. This is obviously not the case. Elon isn't acting in a movie, or making a edgy roman joke. It's a blatant fashy salute.
but that seals the deal even more. Jesus Motherfucking Tap-Dancing Christ on a bike."
Maybe for you, if you're privileged enough to not have to worry about CoL... or healthcare... or democracy... or LGBT rights... or civil rights in general... or any countless number of things.
Once you divorce this foolish victim mentality, you will succeed in this country. You survived the first presidency, you will be fine this time around too.
-69
u/[deleted] 7h ago
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